The Irish foreign minister, Simon Harris, has called on Haitian authorities to take all possible action to secure the release of Gena Heraty, an Irish missionary who was kidnapped on Sunday by an armed gang.
Also taken prisoner were seven staff at the St Helene Orphanage, which Heraty runs, and a three-year-old child.
Reports suggest the attack on the orphanage was carefully planned by the gang, which is one of many that now dominates Haiti.
While the Irish government may have appealed to their Haitian counterparts, the reality is that up to 90 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is currently controlled by gangs.
Despite this spiral into chaos and violence, Heraty has continued to devote her life to service in the troubled Caribbean nation.
Heraty began her mission to Haiti in 1993. Her work has mostly centred on aiding children, especially those in need.
She once said, “The children are why I'm still here. I've no intention whatsoever of leaving, because we're all in this together.”
Killings and kidnappings are now frequent events in Haiti. It is believed that in the first half of this year alone 3,100 have been killed and 336 kidnapped.
Christian missionaries are by no means immune to such incidents as the Heraty case and others demonstrate.
Last year an American couple, Natalie and David Lloyd were kidnapped and murdered by a gang. They were missionaries from Oklahoma, US. Jude Morris, the Haitian director of their mission organisation Missions in Haiti, was also killed.
In 2021, 17 missionaries were kidnapped. All were eventually able to obtain their freedom. Five were released by the gang due to ill health and the remaining 12 were able to escape.
Typically, the motive for such kidnappings is financial. In the case of the 17 missionaries who were kidnapped, the gang demanded a million dollars a head as the price necessary to secure their release.
